Treasured Memories
by laurzz
Summary: DannyLindsayLucy. Post ep oneshot, 6x20. "both of her parents had solid memories that would last a life time. Memories that they'd treasure forever."


**Hi guys, sorry this is so late. As some of you know, I'm currently working on my field placement within a school - so I didn't get much time this morning to watch the episode... So here the oneshot is now. **

**Before you read, just check the date of today if you haven't already. I know that the show didn't work to this timeline, but the 6th of May to me, is the 6th of May... So with that in mind and without further adieu... I hope you enjoy! :)**

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_Post ep oneshot; season 6, episode 20 - Tales from the Undercard._

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Flicking through the case file, Lindsay sighed as her thoughts once again drifted off to her daughter sat at home. It killed Lindsay knowing that Lucy would probably be sat waiting for Mommy and Daddy to walk through the door, be it together or separately. Either way, it broke her heart that she wasn't at home with her.

She glanced through the lab and let out a sad sigh. She loved work; and she loved those she worked with. She thanked God everyday for giving her the chance to work with her husband in a job that many would kill for. After giving birth to Lucy though, her priorities over the past year had changed. Things that seemed important before lost their emphasis...What mattered the most to her now were her daughter and her husband.

And when she was at work; those two things that made her life so much better couldn't be put first.

Feeling two arms wrap themselves around her waist, she let out a sigh as she settled in his arms. She'd passed the stage where she pushed him away, or argued with him over their personal displays of affection. It used to bother her; but now, she couldn't have cared less. So what if Danny wanted to give her a hug as she read through a case report? So what if he wanted to give her a kiss in the middle of the hallway? Over the past year she'd been taught that life was too short to hold back.

"What's up, Montana?" His thick accent broke her train of thoughts.

"Flack, Danny could see you!" she exclaimed playfully as she turned in her husband's arms. "Oh, wait... it's just you... Never mind."

"Smartass." Danny teased as he pressed a kiss to the tip of his wife's nose. "How're you hangin' on over here?"

"By the very ends of my fingertips." She sighed sadly. "We shouldn't be here, Danny... We should be at home."

"I know baby," Danny sighed. "And it's just luck that we couldn't have had today off."

"Luck?" Lindsay snorted. "Luck? More like some evil power decided that they'd ruin today."

"Today isn't ruined sweetheart; we've still got time... Mac could come in here right now and tell us they've solved the case."

Gasping, Lindsay looked over Danny's shoulder and pointed out of the window. "Did you see that pig, babe?"

"There's no need to be over dramatic." He reminded his wife. "Mac knows what date it is today, and it's gonna be okay, sweetie."

"Danny, we're freakin' analysing evidence about Vikings and Gladiators. It's not going to be okay!"

"Baby, on any other day you'd eat this up. Something for you to get your all knowledgeable brain engrossed in? You love this kind of thing!"

"Not on my daughter's birthday, Danny!" Lindsay cried, tears threatening to slip from her tear ducts. "Not today!"

"I know baby," Danny sighed. "I'm just as miserable as you are; that's why I came over here to make sure you were okay."

"Well I'm not." She huffed. "I want to be at home with Lucy. I want to sit there watching her eat icing from her cake, and watch her open her presents."

"And we were going to do all of that tomorrow, or whenever we had the chance. You know how unreliable this job is."

"Danny, we're missing our daughter's first birthday." Lindsay reminded him. "There'll be one first birthday; and that's it. We can't relive it. We can't rewind. And we can't rely on an unreliable job with unreliable hours."

"Your emotions are speaking now," Danny quietly reminded her as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I know how much you hate being here right now, knowing Lu's at home, but babe, the quicker we get all this processed the quicker we can..."

Danny's sentence was cut short by a knocking sounding on their shared office door. Lindsay quickly wiped her eyes, ridding her cheeks of the sneaky tears that had slipped down her face and made herself look half presentable as she turned and faced who was stood at the door.

"Now," the voice began. "Going off what's written on my calendar, today's a special day for the both of you."

"You could say that," Danny chuckled at his boss. "Linds and I here though are strugglin' to put our fingers on what's so special about today, right Linds?"

She thumped him in the chest and scoffed. "Wiseass."

"Did you hear anything from Adam, Lindsay?"

Clearing her throat Lindsay straightened her back as she began to answer her boss. "He said that he was searching through the-..."

"Guys... go home." Mac said finally, cutting Lindsay off from her painful regurgitation of information she'd obtained from Adam.

"What?" The couple breathed in unison.

"You've done enough for the day." Mac assured them. "I know exactly what day it is today. It's only one thirty; she'll have just gone down for her nap, so if you're lucky you might be able to get the subway home in time for her to wake up."

"Are you sure?" Lindsay cried as her fingers curled tightly around Danny's arm in excitement at what Mac was suggesting.

"Positive." Mac smiled. "Give her a kiss from me, and I'll make sure I drop her present around soon."

"You shouldn't have." Danny chuckled. "Really... Me and Linds went a little... crazy, right babe?"

Lindsay looked up from where she was already putting her coat on. "Hmm?"

"Never mind," Danny smiled at his eager wife. "Thanks Mac, we appreciate it."

Mac waved it off. "I've gotten to know you both well enough to spot the fake smiles plastered on your faces. Go home and enjoy your daughter; I'm sick of the sight of your long faces." He teased the couple.

Without having to be told twice, Lindsay threw Danny his coat and grabbed his hand. She quickly kissed Mac on the cheek as she tugged Danny out of the office and continued to tug him down the hallway. This left Mac stood watching the couple as Danny pulled Lindsay towards him, earning him a soft smack in the middle of his chest, for 'slowing them down'. Shaking his head as he shut off the lights in the office, Mac Taylor smiled to himself as he shut the door. He always knew they'd be the forever after of the New York crime lab.

Even if they were the most stubborn beings he'd ever met; they suited nobody but the other.

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Kicking her boots off as soon as she made it through the door, Lindsay Messer raced through her home as she made her way to her daughter's bedroom.

"I got the keys that you just left in the door babe," Danny called into the apartment. "Don't worry about it."

Making his way into the living room, Danny smiled at the dumbfounded babysitter, who sat bouncing Lucy on her knee. "Um, hi?"

Danny raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement as a smiled tugged at his lips. "Watch this... Three... two... one..."

"WHERE'S LUCY?" a voice bellowed from a certain little girl's bedroom.

"Perhaps you could try walking back through the apartment, opening your eyes for twenty seconds and you'll see her sat on the couch, laughing at you, babe." Danny teased.

Lindsay appeared in the hallway and practically skipped to the couch. Haley, the Messer's babysitter smiled as she held Lucy in the air, ready for Lindsay to take her daughter.

"Happy Birthday baby girl," Lindsay whispered as she showered her daughter with kisses. "Oh you have no idea how much Mommy missed you today! Nope. You have no idea!"

"But the rest of New York does..." Danny smirked towards Haley. "Looks like you have the rest of the afternoon to yourself." He began. "We'll make sure we pay you till six though."

"Oh no," Haley shook her head. "You won't... It's fine."

"But..."

"But nothing." Haley smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mr Messer."

"Bye Haley," he smiled as she offered her the book bag that was sat on the floor next to her.

"Bye Mrs Messer." Haley smiled as she carefully approached Lindsay and Lucy.

"Aww, thank you for today, sweetie." Lindsay smiled at their babysitter. "Sorry to cut your hours short."

"Oh please, I see Lucy everyday near enough... The least I can do is share her on her birthday!"

"Haywee!" Lucy giggled as she reached for Haley's long blonde locks. "Haywee hair!"

"That is Haley's hair," Haley giggled as she carefully extracted her curls from Lucy's little fist. Lucy glanced at the hair she'd pulled from Haley's head and extended her hand and looked towards her babysitter with big blue eyes. "That's okay, you can keep that." Haley reassured the little girl.

"Hurts doesn't it?" Lindsay chuckled.

"It's slowly making sense as to why you keep your hair short, you know?" Haley smiled at Lindsay who was staring at Lucy with the 'Mommy look' she had developed so well over the past year.

"It's a killer," Lindsay finally smiled. "See you tomorrow, Sweetie."

"Nine am... Bright and early." Haley smiled. "Bye Lu-lu! Have a brilliant day with Mommy and Danny, k?"

"TAY!" Lucy squealed as she buried her head into Lindsay's shoulder. "BYEEEEE!"

"And Mommy's deaf!" Lindsay giggled as she wiggled Lucy in her arms. Lindsay watched Danny walk Haley out of the apartment, and she took the opportunity to sit on the couch, placing Lucy next to her. "So then Lucy, you're one year old." She began. "One whole year!"

Lucy giggled as she held up one single finger. "One!"

"That's right!" Lindsay cried, "One year old. This time last year, Mommy and Daddy didn't even know you," she explained in her voice that she reserved only for Lucy. It was high pitched yet soft. "But we were so excited to meet you."

"Where's my Lucy girl?" Danny asked as he made his reappearance into the room. "Where's my favourite baby girl?"

Lucy turned and pointed her finger at her Mother. "Dere! Mommy!"

"My actual baby girl!" Danny laughed as he scooped Lucy up from the couch and held him above his head. "Happy birthday baby girl!" he said excitedly as he blew a raspberry to Lucy's chubby belly.

"What does Lucy want to do today?" Lindsay asked her daughter, not expecting a sensible or viable answer.

"Ark!"

"The park?" Lindsay repeated. "You know, I think that sounds like a really good idea, Lu. Do you want to go and play in the park?"

Lucy nodded excitedly. "Ake!"

"And eat cake?" Danny exclaimed as he carefully and playfully dropped Lucy back on the couch next to Lindsay. "Since when do Birthday girls get to eat cake, Mommy?"

"I don't know, Lu... Don't you want carrot sticks; I hear that's always a good birthday girl food. Isn't that right, Daddy?"

The little girl scrunched her face up in disgust. "No Daddy! No!"

"No?" Danny asked as he dropped to his knees in front of his daughter. "No carrot sticks?" he confirmed. "Well, what do you want then?"

"AKE!" Lucy cried. "AKE DADDY, AKE!"

"Cake?" He said contemplatively for a moment. "See Lu, do we want the frosting or the cake..."

"De osting!"

"I thought you'd only want the frosting." Danny smirked at his wife and then back to his daughter. "It's a good job then that Mommy and Daddy bought this little baby tub of frosting on the way home from work isn't it?" he revealed the tiny tester pot of frosting that they'd managed to wrangle from a bakery they frequented often. Lucy absolutely adored the frosting, and on the way home they had both agreed that as much as they'd like to get her a cake, it'd only go to waste. They had decided that a little cupcake after dinner would suffice as a birthday cake for their little girl... letting her have some frosting as a birthday treat in the meantime.

"So, shall we get changed, Mommy... Get Lucy girl changed into her park gear and then she can eat her yummy frosting on the go?"

"That sounds like a good plan, batman."

"Eedracder!"

"Speedracer?" Lindsay giggled at her daughter. "Speedracer Lu?"

Lucy nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Well." Lindsay smirked as she stood from her seat. "Looks like we know where Lucy stands on that debate, eh?"

"Move it before you lose it." Danny threatened as he swiped Lindsay's butt as she dashed off down the hallway with Lucy in her arms.

"You can't catch us!" Lindsay called playfully over her shoulder as she made her way into their bedroom. Judging by the squeals from his daughter, Lindsay had carefully dropped Lucy on the bed, letting her bounce around on the double bed while Lindsay quickly changed out of her work clothes into something a little more comfortable.

Danny glanced at his clock and sighed at his extremely brief trip down memory lane. This time last year; he had been telling Adam how he feared Lindsay was carrying twins.

"DADDY!"

"Comin' princess!" he called as Lucy quickly pulled him from his day dreams.

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Sitting on the park bench; Lindsay stared at her watch, watching as the minutes ticked by. They'd been out for a considerable amount of time, and Danny was now slowly pushing a sleeping Lucy on the swings. Every time he went to move the little girl, she woke herself up and began to get fussy as he pulled her out of the swings, so he had relented and decided to keep the slow and steady pace of the swings as a ploy to coax her into sleep... and it appeared to be working. In this time though, Lindsay had watched each second tick by, remembering each and every second from the year previous. She casted her mind back to the pain she could feel at this point. She was getting close to delivering Lucy, and if she was honest, she had never been so scared.

Lindsay remembered sharing a conversation with Stella about how nervous she was about becoming a Mom, and now, as she sat watching the time tick by she questioned how she could ever feel nervous. She knew that she was a good Mom. She could see the reassurances of such in Lucy's eyes every time her little girl looked at her. All the fears that she wouldn't do things right, or she wouldn't take to motherhood like she hoped fizzled away when she thought about how far she'd come as a person...as a wife... and as a mother to Lucy.

A minute closer...

She let out a breath as she grabbed the stroller and lifted the blanket from Lucy's seat. She then made her way over towards the swings and draped the blanket over her arm. She quickly glanced at her watch one more time as she smiled.

"Good luck!" Danny muttered as he slowly brought Lucy's swing to a stop. "She'll wake up."

"She won't." Lindsay whispered as she carefully extracted the sleeping little girl from the swing. She quickly wrapped her up in the warm and fluffy blanket and held her little girl to her chest as Lucy settled into her new position.

"And you tell me I'm her favourite." Danny scoffed. "In my dreams."

Lindsay smiled as she snapped the brakes on the stroller and carefully placed her sleeping daughter in her seat and made sure she was laid down and strapped in. "She loves her Daddy, but you just can't go up against a Mommy's love."

Danny smiled proudly before glancing at his watch. "Well, I'd say she was officially one year old... Six thirty... on the dot."

Bending down, Danny pressed a kiss to his daughter's chubby cheek. "Happy birthday little girl," he whispered in her ear before moving out of the way so that Lindsay could too give their little girl a kiss.

Instead though, Lindsay ran her fingertip over Lucy's little cheek; just like she had the minute she'd been handed to her. Her skin still felt as soft under Lindsay's fingertip, and a flutter raised inside her as she let herself relive the memory of holding her daughter for the first time.

Letting out a yawn; and effectively breaking her moment she glanced to Danny who was stood proudly. "It's been a long day," he sighed. "And it's the same again tomorrow."

"Yep," Lindsay sighed. "Just another day tomorrow."

"We still have her cupcake though." Danny reminded his wife as he took the stroller and released it's brakes. "So we could just make her birthday last as long as we can."

"That could get expensive." Lindsay giggled.

Rolling his eyes, Danny tucked his wife into his side as they pushed their daughter through central park together.

Although it hadn't been the perfect birthday with a wonderful party, with mountains of ice cream and screams surrounding them for hours on end; both Danny and Lindsay knew that those types of birthdays weren't far from where they were now. Lucy probably wouldn't be able to recall very little, if anything at all from her first birthday; but both of her parents had solid memories that would last a life time. Memories that they'd treasure forever.

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**Hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading. Any thoughts are as usual muchly appreciated! **


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